Ba'athism

Ba'athism is an Arab nationalist ideology that promotes the creation of a unified Arab state led by a vanguard party and a progressive revolutionary government. The ideology supported an enlightenment and renaissance of Arab culture, values, and society, the creation of one-party states, the rejection of political pluralism, Arab nationalism, modernization, social progress, secularism, public ownership over the heights of the economy, and the protection of private property. The ideology was influenced by both Stalinism and fascism, and it had prominent right-wing and left-wing factions. Ba'athism was similar to European fascism in that it synthesized radical nationalism, non-Marxist socialism, an elitist revolutionary vision, the desire to restore past greatness, a centralized authoritarian party, and the division of the ruling party into factions. Despite being involved with communist parties, Michel Aflaq was directly influenced by fascists, and the fascist ideologue Zaki al-Arsuzi played a key role in creating the party, supporting Nazi views on racial superiority (claiming that Islam and Muhammad had reinforced the nobility and purity of Arabs), the virtues of the "one leader", and the use of a symbol that could excite the imagination of the youth (the Ba'athists used the tiger instead of the swastika). In both Iraq and Syria, where Ba'athist governments held power, the governments encouraged religious diversity, but they were instead ruled by religious minorities (Sunnis in Ba'athist Iraq, Alawites in the Syrian Arab Republic), committed grave crimes against humanity, suppressed all dissent against them, and embraced military dictatorships.